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Updated for Version 2.6
Written by Sir_pick_the_prick#2209
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Table of Contents
Overview
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“As ice doth give the biting frost birth. My transcendent blade shakes heaven and earth. Heed my summons and come hence!”
Chongyun
Born with excessive yang Energy, the Liyuen exorcist Chongyun is steady on his path to conquer all evils. To assist in your journey with him, we are glad to introduce the Chongyun Guide with the help of KQM.
May our companionship accompany you forever as our bond is pure as a flower carved out of ice crystals. Under this delightful weather, time to train!
Chongyun has significant utility, being one of the few characters that can bring multiple unique contributions to a team.
Pros
- Unique method of Cryo application that requires close to zero field time and no Energy.
- Similarly accessible rare ability of cooldown reduction at C2.
- Low Energy cost Burst; depending on the team, can require no additional ER to have available.
- Can efficiently hold 4 Noblesse Oblige (4NO) or 4 Instructor (4Ins).
Cons
- Lacks personal damage compared to other characters that fulfill a similar role until C6.
- Does not shine exceptionally in terms of damage besides in his best comps.
If you wish to use Chongyun to his maximum potential, focusing on his aforementioned utility will serve you better than optimizing him for damage.
Talents
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Normal Attack: Demonbane
A subpar set of Normal Attacks, all things considered.
Leveling any character’s Talent increases its base Talent multipliers by a set, multiplicative amount. For Chongyun, that set amount is lower than most. Additionally, the base Talent multipliers and Attack Speed of his Normal Attacks are already less than impressive when compared to other Claymore users, further hindering their damage.
Together, these make for lackluster Normal Attacks that players are not recommended to spend time using, unless playing a shatter comp, where they are required.
Pros
- Not much, honestly.
Cons
- Low damage due to aforementioned problems.
- As a Claymore user, Chongyun’s Normal Attacks are blunt attacks, meaning they Shatter enemies and can restrict him from making use of the 4-pc Blizzard Strayer set effect. However, as expanded upon in the section for Shatter Chongyun, a second Cryo applicator can mitigate this.
Elemental Skill: Spirit Blade: Chonghua’s Layered Frost
The highlight of Chongyun’s kit. It has the unique ability of infusing a teammate’s weapon with Cryo, thus allowing them to apply Cryo by themselves.
There is an internal cooldown on Cryo application from Normal Attacks infused with the Cryo of Chongyun’s Skill, meaning that all affected Normal Attacks, if not overridden by other Elemental infusions, apply Cryo to enemies every three hits or every 2.5 seconds, whichever comes first. However, this application is per character, so it is possible to apply Cryo much faster by rapidly switching characters.
Pros
- A unique method of Cryo application that has a reasonable cooldown and no Energy requirement.
- Generates a significant amount of Energy particles at once, allowing Chongyun to provide a burst of Energy for the team in the short-term even with minimal field time.
- Short duration of cast allows Chongyun to be easily slotted into quickswap teams that require his infusion.
- Long duration of infusion can sustain carries who require Cryo for an extended period of time, such as Melt Bennett.
Cons
- Energy generation over time is somewhat subpar, and without external methods of generating more Energy, Chongyun will struggle to battery more units than merely himself in extended battles.
- Unimpressive damage for a Skill with a 15 second cooldown.
- Infusion is fixed to a circle; thus any team requiring the use of this Skill will be forced to play within the same circle.
- As a blunt attack, will Shatter Frozen enemies. However, this is generally not of much concern, as Cryo can easily be reapplied shortly after.
Elemental Burst: Spirit Blade: Cloud-Parting Star
His Burst can deal decent damage with Constellations, with no ICD on Cryo application and respectable AoE.
Pros
- Elemental Skill makes it easy to set up 4VV for his Burst.
- Similarly easy to set up a Reverse Melt with Bennett’s high Pyro gauge on his Elemental Burst.
- Decent AoE.
- Overall a simple and reliable source of damage.
Cons
- In most teams, Chongyun cannot actually utilize his Burst’s short cooldown, as it will not sync up with other teammates’ cooldowns (e.g. Bennett’s Burst).
- In teams designed to utilize his short cooldowns, the team may not generate enough Energy for Chongyun to fully regenerate his Burst, requiring him to build ER.
- The base damage is not the best and its animation time is also significant, which means buffing Chongyun’s Burst may not be the best use of your time or resources. This is heavily mitigated by Constellations.
- Just like his Normal Attacks, Chongyun’s Burst counts as a blunt attack, which can shatter Frozen enemies However, this can be mitigated in freeze teams by adding another Cryo applier. This will be expanded upon in the section for Shatter Chongyun.
Ascension 1 Talent: Steady Breathing
While 8% ATK SPD sounds good, it is actually pretty irrelevant. This is due to how it actually affects animation time.
Every melee attack has 3 phases: the startup, where the attack is initiated but does not do damage yet; hitlag, where the attack hits the enemy and the game freezes both the player and the enemy model for a few frames; and endlag, where the attack animation is ongoing but the damage has been dealt. This Talent only affects the startup and endlag, leaving hitlag wholly unaffected. Thus, the benefit of ATK SPD is watered down.
Additionally, most units do not have a significant share of their damage in their Normal Attacks, and therefore an increase in their Normal Attack damage is not of much use. This is compounded by the fact that most units will not build Cryo DMG% unless they are already a Cryo unit, further diluting the damage their Normal Attacks would do in a team.
Finally, 8% is just not a lot of ATK SPD; this means that even in the scenarios where hitlag and the Cryo infusion are not an issue, and the character’s damage does largely come from their Normal Attacks, running Chongyun solely for his ATK SPD is never an improvement over other units that can provide other utilities.
In conclusion, this Talent is simply not significant.
Ascension 4 Talent: Rimechaser Blade
This Talent is free damage. It can proc Skill-based abilities, such as the 4-pc bonus of Tenacity of the Millielith, or Sacrificial Greatsword. Additionally, the Cryo resistance shred is valuable, as it is usually not worth your time to shred Cryo for Chongyun in comps. This Talent thus ensures you do not miss out.
However, by default this Talent triggers as his Skill ends, meaning that it won’t have any effect on the first rotation. Therefore, this Talent will not be useful if you cannot take advantage of it going into subsequent rotations. Additionally, it is likely to miss enemies if they exit the field during the 12 seconds required for the field to expire (or if you already killed them).
An interesting note is that when Sacrificial Greatsword is used to recast his Skill, regardless of the duration it has been active, the previously cast field will cease to exist and this Talent will immediately be activated. This will allow this Talent to trigger on the first rotation.
Constellations
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Constellation 1: Ice Unleashed
Chongyun has a subpar Normal Attack chain with few uses in actual combat, and this Constellation affects only that. Additionally, its damage is at the end of the chain, which is not used more than once a rotation even in the rare cases where Chongyun’s Normal Attacks are used. Overall, this is a Constellation that does not provide much utility or a considerable damage increase.
Constellation 2: Atmospheric Revolution
Teamwide cooldown reduction is incredibly rare; the only other source is the incredibly expensive Raiden Shogun’s C6 and the impractical Anemo Resonance. Additionally, unlike Raiden’s C6, Chongyun can actually abuse his cooldown reduction due to having a shorter Burst cooldown and having a shorter Skill cooldown than most typical team rotations.
As such, Chongyun can reduce the rotation duration of the comp he is in while keeping the total damage constant, effectively increasing the team’s DPS.
However, note that some units, namely Noelle or Xiao, cannot benefit from this Constellation significantly. This is because their damage is not cooldown-gated, and thus they are unable to benefit from cooldown reduction. However, for units like Bennett, who are cooldown gated, this can be beneficial.
This is his best Constellation.
Constellation 3: Cloudburst
This Constellation is an unconditional 17.6% increase to Chongyun’s Burst damage. While it is a nice damage increase, it may not be enough to make it worth investing in Chongyun’s damage.
Constellation 4: Frozen Skies
As the effect of this Constellation only occurs when Chongyun initiates the hit on enemies marked with Cryo aura, it is only relevant for Shatter Chongyun. Even then, this is not a valuable Constellation as he does not require that much ER to begin with, further confounded by the fact that its Energy generation is lackluster.
Constellation 5: The True Path
This Constellation is mostly negligible, due to how little of Chongyun’s damage is from his Skill itself.
Constellation 6: Rally of Four Blades
This Constellation is a massive 44% increase to his Burst’s damage. This Constellation makes Chongyun’s Burst a substantially better investment option than before. However, do note that setting up a quad Melt is very difficult (and may require an Anemo support). This will be elaborated on later.
Teams
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Melt Enabler
Chongyun’s Elemental Skill allows Bennett to Forward Melt his Burst and Skill, while Reverse Melting his own Burst off of Bennett’s Pyro application.
Team Comp
| Chongyun | Bennett | Flex Unit | Flex Unit |
| Enables Bennett to Forward Melt, while buffed and enabled by Bennett to Reverse Melt. Symbiotic relationship with Bennett. Can enable Bennett without other supports, unlike other options for Cryo application. | Enabled by Chongyun to Forward Melt. Buffs and enables Chongyun to Reverse Melt. Symbiotic relationship with Chongyun. Doesn’t work if Bennett is C6. | Any unit works here. | Any unit works here. |
Chongyun’s contribution to the team is twofold. Firstly, he allows the team to have access to Cryo application via infused Normal Attacks, which allows the team to require no other Cryo Enablers. This caveatless application is unique to Chongyun, as not even the usual replacements for Melt enabler in this comp can function as smoothly as Chongyun does in this position. Additionally, Chongyun can reduce the team’s cooldowns with his C2, decreasing the rotation’s duration for more damage. Bennett’s 2 Ascension Talents and Chongyun’s C2 can reduce his Elemental Skill’s already low cooldown of 5 seconds to only 1.7s.
It is highly recommended to get C3 Chongyun at minimum before you build him for damage, as it is not worth grinding for artifacts to buff his Burst before that.
Talent Priority
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However, note that until C6, Chongyun is not the primary damage dealer, so his Talents are of less priority than other units. As Chongyun does not use his Normal Attacks in this team, it can be left entirely unlevelled.
Weapons
Assumptions:
C6 Chong with QE, Q Reverse Melted, in Bennett Q giving 800 flat atk. Chong uses 4NO, no other buffs. All weapons R1 unless stated otherwise.
| On First Rotation | On Second Rotation |
 |  |
| Weapons listed in order of recommendation | Reasoning |
 | Wolf’s Gravestone is the most recommended weapon for Chongyun overall. Although it has slightly lower personal damage than Serpent Spine, its passive—providing a team-wide buff—allows it to overtake Serpent Spine in team damage. |
 | Sacrificial Greatsword is the most recommended 4* weapon for Chongyun. Despite having a lower damage profile than other weapons from the second rotation and onwards, it is still the second most damaging sword in the first rotation (given that WGS’s passive is not activated), and its cooldown reset can force Chongyun’s A4 to prematurely activate, thus shredding Cryo without Anemo support required on the first rotation. Its cooldown reset can also help players recover from mistakes. Furthermore, it generates more Particles, which will be extremely helpful if another Burst-reliant Cryo unit is also used in the same comp. |
 | Serpent Spine is the 4* weapon that outputs the most personal damage. While it requires Chongyun to build stacks prior to combat (which can be done in Abyss by placing Chongyun in the first slot of the team and waiting 20 seconds), it can output unmatched damage. However, as Chongyun is not the largest share of damage in this comp, it may not always be the best option. |
  | Lithic Blade and Akoumaru are both extremely strong weapons, albeit conditionally. Lithic Blade needs another unit other than Chongyun to be from Liyue, and Akoumaru requires the two flex units to have at least an 80 cost Burst and a 60 cost Burst to gain that much Burst DMG%. Both are worse than Serpent Spine. |
 | Luxurious Sealord R5 is just the above weapons but without conditions. It is the best F2P option if you have it. |
  | Otherwise, Blackcliff Slasher with 0 Stacks is your best F2P option. If you don’t want to spend Starglitter (which you shouldn’t; it’s not worth it), use Prototype Archaic instead. |
Artifacts
Chongyun uses EM/Cryo DMG%/Crit Rate% or Crit Dmg%. He may also use an ATK sands if the substats are better, but when evenly matched, an EM sands will outperform ATK.
Assumptions: Chongyun C6, ER 130%, Serpent Spine R1.
| Set | % of 4NO | Notes |
4pc Noblesse Oblige  | 100% | The best set overall. While it does not provide the most damage, it has a significant buff attached to it that is easy to proc and makes the team deal more damage. Unconditionally, this is your best option. |
4pc Emblem of Severed Fate  | 106% | The best set for Chongyun’s personal damage, but it provides no team buffs and is a highly contested set. It is not recommended to use this set, but use it if you really want to. |
2pc Noblesse Oblige, 2pc Wanderer’s Troupe Or 2pc Noblesse Oblige, 2pc Blizzard Strayer Or 4pc Lavawalker | 99%-101% | Similar damage to 4NO, but without the buff, and mostly less resin-efficient. Choose this if your Noblesse pieces suck that much. Lavawalker is good for resin efficiency if you grinded for Crimson Witch of Flames. |
4pc Instructors | 83% | Much worse personal damage than 4NO, but a good option if your Chong is unbuilt and you just need him to enable your Bennett. That said, best not to use this. |
Rotation
Chongyun applies Cryo using his Elemental Skill, allowing Bennett to Melt his Burst cast. Next, Bennett applies Pyro with his Skill, allowing an Anemo unit to Swirl it. In AoE, the Swirl will increase the strength of the Pyro gauge on enemies enough for Chongyun to Quad Melt his Burst. Bennett then repeatedly casts his Skill upon his Burst field until it expires, weaving in infused Normal Attacks to apply Cryo for each Skill to Melt off of.
TL;DR:
Chongyun E > Bennett Q E > Optional Anemo unit Swirls Pyro > Chongyun Q > Bennett AA until E off cooldown, repeat until his Burst expires
Flexes
| Flexes | Reasoning |
 | Sucrose is the ideal unit to place here. 4VV enables more damage, and her EM share is uniquely suited for this team due to the high rate of Elemental reactions that benefit from the EM. |
  | Kaeya or Rosaria fill the same role in this comp, to activate Cryo Resonance and deal extra damage. Both of them can do significant damage when built, and their status as Cryo units will allow Bennett to deal more damage. Be sure to snapshot their abilities on Bennett’s Burst. |
 | Kazuha is somewhat of a waste but still functional here. He can Swirl Pyro and buff Bennett’s output, as well as hold 4VV. However, note that using his Burst in Bennett’s Burst here is not an option as it will always infuse Pyro, removing Cryo from enemies and preventing Bennett from Melting his Skills. |
 | Albedo is an acceptable choice here, due to requiring low field time and outputting acceptable damage, while buffing both Bennett and Chongyun with his A4. Note that his Skill can cause Chongyun’s Burst to not Melt all of its blades. |
 | Zhongli is another decent option, as his shield makes it easier to deal with enemies, while shredding their Elemental Resistances. While the Resistance shred may not match up to that of 4VV, and he provides little else utility, he can provide a level of comfort that cannot be found elsewhere. |
  | Xiangling and Xingqiu together transform the team into a different rotation altogether. Normally, due to the major players in the rotation working with 15 second cooldowns, the rotation is 15 seconds long. However, playing around Xiangling and Xingqiu extends the rotation into a longer one. This is rather similar to the Bennett-Xiangling-Xingqiu-Sucrose team, but Chongyun’s personal damage makes up for the loss of TTDS and 4VV, and using 4 set Noblesse Oblige can allow Bennett to use 4 set Instructors to somewhat mitigate the loss of em share. |
Why not any other Anemos?
There is a noticeable lack of Anemo units from the above options as listed. This is by design. A lot of Anemo units simply do not work well with this comp for various reasons. Jean is a healer, which is highly redundant in this comp, and her pyro application, while beneficial for Chongyun, steals the cryo aura vital for Bennett to do his 51% of the team damage. Venti cannot avoid absorbing pyro in his Burst, which has a similar issue, and even if he could consistently infuse cryo, he would still carry enemies beyond Bennett’s reach. Anemo MC is literally just a 4vv unit here, and his Skill requires ruinous amounts of field time to add insult to injury. Xiao is definitely better to just place somewhere else. Sayu has the same redundancy as Jean, but due to her lower field time requirements can be one of the most successful of the Anemos to use here, even if she can only contribute 4vv. Overall, there is no Anemo avaliable that is not simply a stopgap unit. Sucrose, with her em share alone, contributes 8% of the team’s overall dps, even without swirling Cryo to fully buff Chongyun. Thus, no one but Kazuha can even come close to matching her team contribution.
Freeze Enabler
Chongyun infuses the Normal Attacks of another Cryo character via his Elemental Skill, allowing them to benefit more from building Cryo DMG% while activating Cryo Resonance.
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| Kaeya/Rosaria | Chongyun | Xingqiu | Anemo Flex |
| A self-sufficient Cryo carry/sub-DPS. Their Bursts do massive damage, and they can also use 4pc Blizzard Strayer here. | Converts the onfield attacker’s Normal Attack damage to Cryo, enabling them to deal more damage. Additionally provides Cryo Resonance and some amount of Cryo Particles. | Provides Hydro application for consistent Freeze. | 4VV support. Any Anemo unit works here, although Kazuha is ideal for his DMG% buff. |
Chongyun allows either of Kaeya or Rosaria to gap-fill in their own team. As Kaeya and Rosaria build Cryo DMG%, their default Physical Normal Attacks will deal poor damage. Chongyun allows those Normal Attacks to benefit from Cryo DMG% as well, increasing their damage profile. Additionally, he reduces the cooldowns of the entire team at C2, allowing for faster rotations and higher team DPS.
This composition is pretty well covered by our Kaeya Guide, so this section will focus a lot more on how Chongyun is built more than anything else.
Talent Priority
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However, note that Chongyun’s damage is never a priority, so Talents are not that significant. As Chongyun does not use his Normal Attacks in this team, it can be left entirely unlevelled.
Weapons
As Chongyun’s Burst is not significant damage without Bennett, it is not recommended for him to Burst here unless he is doing it for a buff, such as 4pc Noblesse Oblige.
| Weapons listed in order of recommendation | Reasoning |
| Wolf’s Gravestone is the ideal weapon for Chongyun here. Although the ATK buff and stats are less relevant for Chongyun himself, this is the only Claymore available with a passive that can buff teammates. While WGS is likely better off on another Claymore unit if its usage is contested, it is still the best choice for this position. |
| Sacrificial Greatsword can allow Chongyun’s A4 to proc early, allowing him to shred Cryo resistance on enemies. This can contribute to team damage significantly. |
 | Favonius Greatsword is acceptable, although it requires some CRIT building. While the Cryo carry and Chongyun do not require Energy, Xingqiu and the Anemo unit might. Using Fav on Chongyun will decrease the ER needs of both units and allow them to run more damaging stats on their artifacts and weapons instead. Note that you may have to use a CR circlet in order to proc the passive consistently. |
| Any | Other options do not contribute to greater damage or utility. |
Artifacts
Chongyun’s recommended set is 4pc Noblesse Oblige. In a team without Bennett, who can provide great ATK boost and Pyro application, his Burst damage even at C6 requires heavy investment to deal even a considerable amount of damage. Investing in other team members, who have higher damage ceilings, will be a better option to optimize your resources. Thus, for this comp it is not recommended to sacrifice a 4pc ability for better offset artifacts.
Rotation
Use his Skill at the start of every rotation, followed by a Burst if you are using 4pc Noblesse. Swirl Cryo right afterwards for optimal uptime. Do not swap into Chongyun until you are ready to repeat the rotation.
Shatter Chongyun
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Chongyun, with the support of Xingqiu and another Cryo unit, uses his infused Normal Attacks to constantly Shatter and then re-Freeze enemies.
This comp has slightly lower damage output than the previous two, but can still be worth running.
Team Comp
| Chongyun | Xingqiu | Cryo flex | Electro/Anemo/Zhongli Flex |
| The on-field carry. While his Normal Attacks still deal lackluster damage, he can make up for it by Shattering. | Provides Hydro application for consistent Freeze. | Provides off-field Cryo application. | To Superconduct, Swirl Cryo to shred Resistance via 4VV, or shred all Resistances, respectively. |
Disclaimer
Chongyun is not the main damage dealer in this comp. That would be Xingqiu. Therefore, in investment prioritization, always place Xingqiu before Chongyun. Note that at roughly 180% ER, Xingqiu using a 4BS ADC set is roughly equal to a Xingqiu using a 4pc Emblem of Severed Fate ADC artifact set. Above that ER, 4ESF is favoured, and below that, 4BS. However, also note that using 4EOSF means that you can use the same artifact set in other team comps.
Talent Priority
Before C6:
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After C6:
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Note that if Chongyun is built with triple EM mainstats, Talent levels will be an insignificant damage increase and is therefore not worth the resources.
Weapons
Assumptions: C6 Chongyun with 4BS, rotation EQ N4 N2, mainstats EM/EM/EM, 100% ER.
Mainstats do not change these rankings much.
| Weapons listed in order of recommendation | Reasoning |
| Wolf’s Gravestone is Chongyun’s ideal weapon, regardless of his mainstat configuration. The massive amount of ATK provided allows Chongyun to deal decent damage. |
| Serpent Spine is the most recommended 4* weapon here. The team’s high Freeze uptime allows the passive to easily remain at max stacks, and the additional Crit is always useful. |
| Luxurious Sealord R5 is the best option for a F2P player who got this weapon during the event. The ATK% and Burst DMG% alike are helpful for Chongyun’s damage, especially at C6. |
 | Rainslasher is a surprisingly good choice. Due to the odd nature of underlying Hydro in Freeze, the uptime of this weapon’s active is inconsistent and therefore extremely difficult to determine. However, the uptime is likely much higher than 50% on average, which would elevate the relative placement of this weapon tremendously. With refines, it can potentially match WGS. |
| Otherwise, Prototype Archaic is the best option. |
Artifacts
Before C6, the ideal mainstat distribution is EM/EM/EM. The increase in Chongyun’s Shatter damage is extremely significant and far outstrips building for the ATK-based damage he deals.
At C6, however, the balance shifts, and now any distribution of main stats perform similarily.
Gaps between the highest and lowest-damage builds between ATK/DMG/CRIT DMG (ADC), EM/DMG/CRIT DMG (EDC), EM/DMG/EM (EDE) and EM/EM/EM (EEE), in the cases where there was the most deviation:
| Chongyun with a Kazuha buffing him with 4VV and A4 | 7% in favour of ADC |
| Chongyun with a Lisa buffing him with Superconduct and 4 Ins | 2% in favour of EEE |
As the table shows, the differences between ideal builds at both extremes are extremely small and can easily be made up by a difference in substats. All builds mentioned above are equally valid, and depend entirely upon the user. However, do prioritize EM, ATK and Crit Rate/Crit DMG subs. A Crit Rate circlet, due to the massive amounts of Crit given by Blizzard Strayer, is often not an optimal option. Remember, Crit Rate caps at 100%.
There are very few options for artifact sets. Due to the high Freeze uptime possible with another Cryo unit applying Cryo from off-field, 4pc Blizzard Strayer is the best set by a large margin. Even on triple EM builds, this provides enough Crit Rate that Crit DMG and ATK subs are valuable, and makes the damage Chongyun deals with ATK scaling abilities non-negligible. There are no real alternatives for this set, although if really desperate you could also use 2pc Wanderer’s Troupe/2pc Blizzard Strayer.
Because 4pc Blizzard Strayer is so highly desirable, it is highly recommended to still build EM mainstats at C6. Farming for EM on Chongyun here would allow for simultaneous grinding of an ADC set for another unit (XQ or the Cryo flex) while preparing an entirely different set for Chongyun that would not overlap, which is highly resin-efficient.
Flexes
Cryo Flexes
| Flex unit options | Reasoning |
| Rosaria is the ideal unit for this slot. She shares Crit Rate with her Burst, deals more damage than Kaeya with C2, generates large amounts of Cryo Particles, can be self-sufficient at C4, and shreds Phys Resist for Chongyun’s Shatters at C6. Also, Blizzard Strayer’s Crit Rate does not apply to the hit which freezes, which will be most of the Cryo flex slot’s hits. This synergizes well with Rosaria’s preference to build Crit Rate visible on the character stat screen for increased Crit Rate share rather than rely on the Crit Rate from the 4pc Blizzard Strayer set bonus. Overall, there is no unit better for this slot than her. |
| Kaeya is a good substitute, although only a substitute for Rosaria. |
 | Diona is the most comfortable option available. Her shield is tanky and she provides healing, although this is often unnecessary given Freeze and Xingqiu’s psuedo-healing. If you can get her C6, this provides a boost for Chongyun’s Shatter damage as well as Kazuha’s Swirl damage and A4 for a short amount of time. However, Diona lacks personal damage and has slower Cryo application than other options. |
 | Ganyu is an acceptable Cryo applier, although she would easily deal a lot more in her own comp. |
Non-Cryo Flexes
| Flex unit options | Reasoning |
| Kazuha is the best option available for maximising Elemental damage. His Burst can apply Cryo if infused, his grouping is among the best in the game, he can use 4VV to reduce enemy Cryo Resistance, and he can buff Elemental DMG with his A4. Note that in this comp, due to the relative speed of the rotation, he only has time to use a single Skill. Therefore, an ER sword, such as Favonius Sword, is ideal here. |
| Sucrose is another good option. Her EM share can buff Shatter while 4VV shreds Cryo Resistance. She can also use Thrilling Tales of Dragon Slayers (buff transferred to Xingqiu). However, this buff is only applicable every other rotation, and Xingqiu cannot snapshot it. |
 | Lisa is a surprisingly good option. As a catalyst user, she can use Thrilling Tales of Dragon Slayers (buff transferred to Xingqiu). Her Skill is fast and applies Electro, proccing the Superconduct reaction, and she can use 4pc Instructors to further buff Shatter damage. She is the ideal option for low investment. Her Burst is unnecessary, but can also be used to provide a rare enemy DEF reduction. |
 | Fischl is an acceptable slot in for her Electro application and damage. Her Electro application does not really interfere with Freeze uptime once the enemy has a cryo or hydro aura on them. In fact, her un-Freezing before the Shatter phase can help with fixing mistakes caused by Freezing for too long. However, it should be noted that her damage is not buffed and is thus lower than usual. She should alternate between her Skill and her Burst for each rotation. |
| Zhongli is a decent middle ground. He shreds all Elemental Resistances, including Physical, provides unparalleled comfort, and can use 4pc Instructors. His pillar should be placed away from enemies to prevent it from stealing Shatter procs. |
| Any Anemo or Electro can apply to some extent. However, the options above have been found to be better, so it would be better to use those instead. |
Reverse Melt Carry Aside
We have decided to remove Reverse Melt carry from the guide. This decision is twofold. Firstly, it has too much overlap with Melt enabler Chongyun, where the entire first half of the rotation is essentially identical, and thus this kind of composition and type of play has already been covered to a very comprehensive degree. Secondly, the output of the team Bennett-Xiangling-Kazuha-Chongyun has been found to be roughly similar to the output of the team Bennett-Xiangling-Kazuha and any TTDS, 4 Instructor support with any degree of output, to the point where Chongyun is considered highly redundant even in such comps. As such, we will not be covering it here.
If you want to build Chongyun as such, you may peruse other guides which have covered how to build Pure Pyro compositions, such as the Klee guide. Otherwise, the recommendations for how to build Chongyun in these teams is highly similar to how Chongyun is built in Melt enabler teams. Alternatively, visit Chongyun Mains for more info.
Chongyun Mechanics
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Shieldbreaking
When Chongyun uses his Elemental Skill, all melee type attacks are infused with Cryo for a considerable duration. If the enemy is under an Elemental shield, attacking under this effect will rapidly deplete the shield. While there are easier options that can also shred shields with similar efficiency, such as Ganyu or Ayaka, Chongyun is a budget alternative for when the aforementioned options are not available. This is especially valuable for enemies like Abyss Lector or Abyss Herald, where efficient shield-breaking is vital to clearing their respective chambers efficiently. In these specific cases, Chongyun does not require any specific gear or even Constellations in order to break Abyss Herald’s or Lector’s shield efficiently.
If you have a fast attacker in your team, namely Zhongli or Xiangling, having them attacking on field will yield great results. If not, after setting Chongyun’s E field, rapidly swapping characters and attacking will be sufficient.
Rosaria and Kaeya are two other efficient shield-breaking choices; coupled with Chongyun, they can absolutely devastate any shield that is not Cryo. However it is not recommended that you replace a team slot with Chongyun if you already have either of these two in your team, or vice versa, as it is generally better to occupy the slot with a more damage-oriented unit. After all, faster shield-breaking is of little use if you cannot kill the enemy afterwards or even reduce their HP to the threshold that triggers their shield.
All 3 of these characters are popular options for whenever people run up against a tough shield such as the Abyss Herald’s. There are a few key differences that will impact your choice for the flex slot you reserved:
- At lower investment (level 1, few leveled artifacts or weapons), Chongyun would be better as a budget option for the team, as he does not require anything to function, only his Cryo infusion field, whereas Kaeya and Rosaria may have Energy issues to get their Burst up and requires frequent swapping for optimal results. Chongyun also has access to the 4NO set and Sacrificial Greatsword and, if you have it, cooldown reduction of C2, which will all considerably contribute to your team comp.
- At higher investment, however, Kaeya and Rosaria would eventually outweigh Chongyun in terms of contribution to the team, as their personal damage profile can be very significant, while also not being very far behind in terms of shield-breaking.
Afterword
Fanart by Purin2u
Fanart link: https://twitter.com/purin2u_/status/1325370410586681344/photo/1
Chongyun is a character with a unique kit despite some underwhelming features. However, thanks to those abilities, he might shine in certain scenarios. Hopefully, this guide will give you a better understanding of the possibilities to explore him as a member of your team.
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